RWBY: Sidelines
by XaosDiscordial
Summary: In the world of Remnant, Hunters learn to fight the Grimm, often in teams of four. One such team is team RWBY - charismatic, skilled, and ultimately important. But there were more teams than that at initiation - and more dorm rooms than just RWBY's and JNPR's. Meet team WVRN. They may be on the sidelines, but they're stuck along for the ride. T Rating for potential strong language.


**RWBY: Sidelines**

**VOLUME 1, CHAPTER 1 – WVRN**

* * *

"Uh… sir? I've got a-um… a question."

A girl in white with a long ponytail was launched off the cliff at high speed, disappearing amongst the equally white clouds.

"So, this _landing… strategy _thing, uhh-wa-what is it? You're like, dropping us off or something?"

The _whoosh_ of the launch pads firing prevailed as the blonde boy spoke.

"No," said Ozpin, casually swilling his coffee, "You will be falling."

A boy with a light-green mohawk took a stance and was promptly shot through the air.

"Oh… I see-so, like- did you hand out parachutes for us?"

A crazed looking redhead was tossed into the air, whooping with joy.

"No, you will be using _your own_ landing strategy."

A few spaces away, a tall boy with combed back, burnt-orange hair flew into the sky.

"Uh… huh… Yeah."

A broad-shouldered blonde brawler threw on some Aviator shades and winked at her cloak-clad sister as she was launched into the air.

"Woo-hoo!"

The aforementioned silver-eyed sister smirked at the worried boy before she was thrown forward.

"So-uh-what exactly _is_ a landing strateg-EEEHEHEH!" The boy bleated as he barrelled into the sky, flipping uncontrollably.

Ozpin watched him lazily from the cliff, finally taking a loud sip of his coffee.

* * *

The wind bit at Wulf's face as he flew past, threatening to undo his ponytail. A stray thought reminded him of the situation at hand, but he stalled it momentarily to adjust his grey-striped hair. With it secured, he set his red-eyed sights on his goal.

Trees appeared below him, a shimmering emerald sea of leaves that would have taken his breath away, had his speed not accomplished the job. Seeing a circle of trees, he made for it as best he could and sprang off the first of the ring.

He continued to bounce from tree to tree, directing his forward momentum upwards. Eventually, he leapt straight up, stopping, mid-air, in the centre of the circle. He pulled out his rapier as he fell, raised it to block, facing down, and activated his semblance.

He landed hard on his sword, his aura glowing black as he sprang off it, landing on his feet. He breathed out and rested for a moment, before he heard a growl from his left side. He turned to see a Beowolf lunging at him. He had barely a second to react before its forearm slammed into his face, throwing him a few feet back.

His right hand came up instinctively to the scar on his face, running straight from above his right eye, over the bridge of his nose to just under his left eye. He pulled it back, however, drawing a six-shot dust pistol from its holster.

He unloaded three shots from the pistol, but the Beowolf was undeterred, growling again as it lumbered over to him. Seeing as it was no use, Wulf thrust forward with his rapier, stepping into the Grimm's reach. He blocked its next strike with his semblance, then darted under the third. His blade shot up into the Grimm's eye-socket, and it slumped, dead.

As the motes of dust peeled off the dead Beowolf, Wulf carefully surveyed his surroundings. More Beowolves, at least a dozen, crept around the edge of the clearing, waiting for a chance to attack. Behind them, eyes glowing like hot coals, a Beowolf Alpha stood, studying his pack.

A lone Beowolf stepped forward, growling. Wulf readied his sword. It prepared to pounce, leaning back-

It keeled over and began to disintegrate.

In confusion, Wulf looked closer. From the back of the disappearing Grimm hopped a girl, her short, dark-green hair shimmering in the light. A light green jacket was draped over her darker vest as she spun two large knives in her hands. Wulf noticed a scar bridging her lips on the right side as she smirked.

"Hey there partner." She held out a hand. "The name's Viridian."

"Mine's Wulf."

Turquoise eyes drifted to the wolf ears on top of his head.

"It's a traditional Faunus name."

She grinned at that, turning to face the approaching Grimm. She flicked her wrist as the knife in her right hand became a pistol.

"Looks like we've got work to do, wolf-boy."

He nodded.

"Indeed."

* * *

Nyanza was having a good day.

She giggled as she swung her battle-axe (though, to be fair, it was too grotesquely huge to be truly called that) into a group of Ursai, watching as their body parts flew off with speed. Grimm were great for killing – no blood to get on her purple dress, no gore stuck in her light green hair. Nothing to worry about except for getting caught out.

Yes, Nyanza was truly having a good day. That is, until the Alpha caught her by surprise.

It came out of nowhere, slamming into her like a freight train with no brakes. She slid over the grass, bringing her axe forward, but the Ursa simply shoved it aside, preparing to charge.

She needed a plan, and she needed it now.

With a heavy swing, she hit a tree to her left, throwing her forward. Part of her enjoyed how the tree split under the strain, but there was a fight at hand. She let the axe come back around, directing it out again on the other side, bringing it down on the Grimm. Its faceplate cracked, and the Alpha seemed injured, but it did not die.

Crap.

She took a defensive stance, ready to block any attack, when she heard a yell from above. She glanced up. So did the Grimm.

The Grimm was too slow to react.

Like a missile, a reddish-brown figure collided with the Alpha, delivering punch after punch. With how weakened it was by Nyanza's attacks, its bone-like plates shattered under the onslaught, the Grimm collapsing in pain. Seconds later, smoke-like particles began to slough off the Alpha's body, and the red-haired boy leapt over to her.

"Guess we're stuck together, huh?" He held out a hand, and she took it, giggling.

"I'm Nyanza. What's your name, brown-eyed stranger?"

"Rufous Sache, at your service." His brown eyes were, upon closer inspection, very strange – the right one was lighter than the other, and he had a little scar under it, tracing the edge of his jaw. His maroon hair complimented his deep red sleeveless jacket, layered over a simple light brown tee.

"Why are you staring at me like that?"

"Sorry!" Nyanza took a step back and shook her head, surveying the Ursai around them. They were closer than before – the death of the Alpha had not deterred them.

"Wow, that's a lot of Ursai. Say, should we, maybe, run?"

"How? We're surrounded, Ru."

"Ru?" He blinked, staring at her incredulously.

"Ru."

"Right." He rubbed his temples. "Look so my semblance lets me… air jump, essentially. It's how I stayed in the air so long. I could grab you, jump, and we'd be gone."

Nyanza looked around, considering. Suddenly, an idea came to her.

"How high?"

"What?"

"How high can you get?"

"Quickly? Like, three of these trees."

"Grab me and wait for my signal. I have a plan."

"Oh good." He picked her up bridal style. "Are you going to tell me?"

"Nah. You can guess, though." He hefted her weapon, making a few adjustments. It began to shift, becoming smaller, rounder – soon, she had some kind of rocket launcher in her hands.

"Oh."

The Ursai pounced. She gave the signal.

Rufous jumped.

Faster than she could see, she was high above the Grimm. They hadn't noticed their prey was gone yet. Perfect. She swung the rocket launcher down, turning off the safety. She felt it get warm in her hands.

She fired.

An explosion like no other sent shockwaves through the forest, trees swaying uncontrollably. The grim were obliterated by the blast, flash sublimating under the heat and pressure, consigned to oblivion in an instant.

A few moments later, Rufous had landed, staring at the damaged ground.

"Wow, remind me not to get on your bad side. Why didn't you do that before?"

"I only have one." She surveyed the damage. "At least I didn't set the forest on fire or anything."

"Yeah." They were silent for a few seconds, taking in the scorched trees. "Hold on, shouldn't we go and get our relics now?"

"Sounds good."

* * *

Viridian fired two shots from her pistols before shifting them back to knives. She leapt forward and thrust them into the Beowolf's faceplate, the bone crumbling to dust around the twin blades.

13\. That was the thirteenth and final Grimm, barring the Alpha. Only it stood before them now, slow and suspicious.

"So what exactly _is_ this thing?"

Wulf checked his scroll.

"A Beowolf Alpha, I believe. They're supposed to be older and smarter than normal Beowolves, as well as stronger."

"Well that bit I can see, wolf-boy." She shifted the knife on her right into a pistol. "How are we gonna kill this thing?"

Wulf studied the monster as it loomed over them. It was huge and had plates _everywhere_. Red swirls covered the protrusions almost decoratively, adding an extra dimension of horror. Its beady red eyes glared down at the two accusingly.

"Its plating is thicker than regular Beowolf armour, so we've got to work around it." He studied it further, noticing the literal cracks in its armour. "Go for the shoulders and the edge of the spine. If we can remove those forelimbs, we have a chance at beating this thing."

"But won't it figure us out, being smarter than usual?"

Wulf pulled out his pistol, loading in some dust. "Then we distract it with bullets."

"Right."

They stared at the Grimm, and it stared back at them. Wulf unsheathed his rapier.

They jumped together.

Viridian sent two shots into the beast's faceplate, leaping to the beast's right shoulder and thrusting her knife into the gap in the plating. The beast roared, and she looked to the right to see Wulf jamming his rapier into the plating of the left shoulder, sliding it around the plate gaps and sawing the limb like a log.

She turned back and shifted her pistol into a knife, jamming it into the shoulder next to its sister blade.

With great difficulty, she worked her way around the plates, occasionally hearing Wulf's pistol fire when the Alpha tried to go for her. As she got near to the end, she felt a sudden shift in weight, the whole beast stumbling as its left forelimb fell off. It roared in pain, trying to shake her off. Her blades met each other. The resistance was gone.

She pulled.

With a mighty tug, the beast's remaining forelimb fell to the ground, pinning her. The Alpha roared in pain again, distracted quickly by a few shots from Wulf's pistol. She shifted under the slowly disappearing limb to see better.

Wulf unloaded the last of his dust into the beast's eyes, blinding it as he rushed forward. With a single bound, he threw the rapier forward – through the shoulder it dug, working its way to the monster's heart. Still, the Alpha was unphased, thrashing wildly.

Viridian threw off the now light limb and hopped over to the monster, jamming her knife next to Wulf's blade. She hung off it, holding her hand out to him in case he fell.

Wulf saw Viridian hop up and had an idea. He took her hand, removing his rapier from the beast. Her eyes bulged at the sudden weight, but her grip stayed strong.

"Swing me over to its chest; I can go for its heart!"

She obliged, swinging him forward over the beast's torso. He aimed between its plates – he needed the exact right moment.

He thrust forward.

The monster stopped suddenly – it writhed for a second, then fell forward onto him, crushing him under its heavy body. However, its body decomposed quickly, and he was soon greeted with deep turquoise eyes looking down at him.

Viridian held out a hand and he took it. She helped him up, looking him up and down.

"That's a nice rapier you've got there. Has it got a name?"

He glanced at the red blade.

"Nasturtium Strike."

* * *

"All I'm saying is, why would you _choose_ to fight in heels when you could be wearing literally anything else!"

Nyanza gave a dramatic toss of her long lime-green locks.

"Fashion."

Rufous sighed. His feet ached in his boots, and his brass knuckles were warm from being in his palms. He could only imagine how bad Nyanza's feet were.

"Oh hey, we're here."

"Finally!"

They stumbled into a clearing with a large stone structure in the centre, within which a ring of pedestals stood. On each pedestal was a chess piece – some black, some a strange golden yellow colour.

"I think we're first!" Rufous said, staring at the chess pieces. "I guess we should pick one. Do you play chess?"

"Nah." Nyanza picked up a black piece with tiny crenelations on the top. "What's this one called?"

"I dunno. I don't play either. Like, a castle, or a tower, of something?"

"I guess. Well, it looks cool, so it's ours now!" she considered putting it in a pocket, before remembering that she didn't have any. "What should we do now?"

"Well, Professor Ozpin said we should head back afterwards, so we should probably do that."

"Sounds good."

As the turned, however, a girl's voice rang out.

"Finally! Intelligent life that isn't Grimm!"

They both turned to see two people, a boy and a girl, walking out of the woods. The girl had dark green hair, with a light green jacket and a deep green shirt. The boy, however, had a white button-up that contrasted his dark trousers and complimented his grey-striped hair, done back in a ponytail. Two wolf ears poked from the top of his head, framing his scarred face. His red eyes contrasted his deep blue waistcoat, made of thick-looking fabric.

"Oh hey!"

"Sup! The name's Viridian. This is Wulf."

"I'm Rufous."

"Nyanza!"

"Nice to meet you both." The boy looked stoically at the chess pieces, then at the one in Nyanza's hands. "I see you picked the black rook?"

"I… guess?"

"Then so shall I." Wulf pocketed a piece identical to Nyanza's and turned back to them. "We should probably go. I saw a Nevermore earlier."

"Cool."

"Sounds good!"

"Where are we going, though?"

"Over there." Wulf pointed at the path that they had somehow missed earlier.

"Right-o."

* * *

"God, _more_ walking?"

"You should have complained earlier."

The trail had led them up onto a cliff, but they still had a long way to go before they reached the school. Rufous had been quiet up until that point, plodding along uncomfortably. Wulf gave him no sympathy.

"Aren't you, like, from Atlas? You guys are supposed to be the dainty ones."

"Just because most of Atlas is rich beyond compare, doesn't mean all of it does." Wulf frowned a little, but quickly returned to his emotionless state. "Every city has an underworld, Rufous. Atlas included. It's a part of life, especially for a Faunus."

"Could you two shut up! I can hear something." Viridian stopped to listen.

"I can hear it too."

"Of course you can, wolf-boy. You have fancy ears."

"You could give half of Atlas a heart attack with those words."

"Shh!"

They all stopped and turned. Suddenly, a giant black mass flew though the sky over their heads, heading towards the forest temple.

"A Nevermore."

Rufous looked at Wulf incredulously.

"Why aren't you shocked?"

"I'm from Atlas. We get tons of them. Stoicism is the Atlesian way."

"Hold on – there's someone riding that thing!"

True to Nyanza's word, a red mass suddenly fell from the Nevermore. To their surprise, it was intercepted by a screaming yellow blob, both landing somewhere in the trees.

"Correction – was."

"No wait! There's still somebody there!"

Again, true to Nyanza's word, a white shape could be seen, clinging to the Nevermore for dear life. Wulf's eyes strained, and he stepped in front of them.

"That's Weiss Schnee."

"You know her?"

"Rufous, her father is not only one of the richest men, if not _the_ richest man in the world, but is also the involuntary figurehead of the anti-Faunus agenda globally. Every Faunus in Remnant knows who she is. Especially those from Atlas."

Weiss, seemingly having had enough of life, fell from the Nevermore. The four watched as her form fell below the tree-line.

"That had to have hurt."

Viridian noticed Wulf's lips curl minutely into something that almost resembled a smile before he shook his head.

"We should check if they are alright."

"We're too far away, Wulf. Besides, she probably had the Aura to tank that. Dust, someone probably caught her."

"It's called the Bystander Effect for a reason, Rufous." Wulf turned and began to run back along the path, and the others had no choice but to follow.

* * *

Eventually, they found a large ravine filled with stone ruins. A group of students were fighting with the Nevermore, and they were able to make out Weiss amongst the group.

"What did I tell you? She's fine. Now we have to walk all the way back. Can we rest?"

"We should help them, guys." Nyanza twirled her hair. "It's the right thing to do."

"Actually, Rufous is right." Everyone looked at Wulf in shock.

"I am?"

"They have the situation under control. We shouldn't interfere, or we might make things worse; who knows what they're planning? We also just ran a significant distance – I'm fine, but Rufous clearly needs to recuperate. We should take a moment to watch."

"Cool." Rufous took the invitation to sit down. Before anyone could say anything else, however, they heard loud gunshots and all turned their heads to the battle.

"I- HOPE- YOU'RE- HUNGRY!" The blonde brawler from earlier finished her clip into the Nevermore's mouth, jumping down onto a stone path as the Nevermore slammed into the cliff-face behind. She looked up, and swapped places with Weiss, who jumped high and froze the Nevermore's tail in place.

"That looks epic!" Nyanza squealed, enamoured by their weapons.

Back near some pillars, a black-haired girl with a bow threw her weapon over to the brawler, who stabbed it into the other pillar. A ribbon connected the two pillars horizontally.

"What do you think is going on, Wulf? Looks right up your alley."

"Either a giant garrotte, or…"

A girl with a red cape swung her scythe around, bending the ribbon around herself. She was held in place by a glyph made by Weiss, who had come back to them while the Nevermore was stuck.

"A slingshot." Despite his monotone voice, Wulf's eye's widened.

Weiss and the caped girl exchanged words but were two far away for even Wulf to hear. Suddenly, it happened.

With explosive force that broke the ground behind, the red-haired girl shot forward, firing her weapon behind her to gain speed as she closed in on the Nevermore. Her blade collided with its neck, both colliding with the cliff behind, breaking the old rocks.

Weiss conjured a column of glyphs on the cliff-face, and the girl ran up the wall, screaming and firing her weapon as the Nevermore screeched in pain. Finally, she shot off the edge, up into the sky, and with a loud slash the Nevermore's head separated from its body. The girl landed next to the head, scythe-gun over her shoulders, and the Nevermore's body fell into the ravine.

Nyanza stared at Rufous. "_I want that scythe._"

"Quiet you."

They all stared in awe as the caped girl looked down at her friends on the ground, who were now standing side by side. Wulf caught the brawler's words as they flew through the wind:

"Well that was a thing."

He looked back at the others, thinking. Viridian got up, brushing off her jeans.

"That was cool, but what should we do now?"

Wulf looked at Rufous. "Are you good?"

"Yeah."

"Then let's head back. We don't want the Professors to think we're lost."

They all got up and began to walk back to the school. Little did they know, that the aforementioned Professors were studying them – at least, one of them was.

The other was sipping his coffee and enjoying the fireworks.

* * *

"Wulf Dionis, Viridian Cole, Rufous Sache, Nyanza Russet."

The applause slowed as the four mentioned walked up onto the stage, standing in a line before Professor Ozpin.

"The four of you retrieved the black rook pieces. From this day forward, you will work together as… team Wyvern."

Upon the screen, the letters WVRN appeared under the pictures of them.

"Led by… Wulf Dionis."

The applause returned in full force as Nyanza jumped at Rufous, squeezing him with a hug despite being significantly shorter.

"Congratulations, young man."

Viridian merely turned to Wulf and held out her hand.

Wulf obliged with a handshake. "You know, Viridian is rather long to shout in battle."

She smirked. "How about Viri then?"

"That works for me."

The four walked off the stage together, followed by more applause. Applause that only slowed when another four faces appeared on the screen.

"Russel Thrush, Cardin Winchester…"

* * *

**Author's**** Notes**

**Well that was fun.**

**I'll be honest with you, writing something alongside another work's schedule is way easier than plotting something out yourself. I must make sure to keep it original, though.**

**Transcribing those RWBY moments in my own style was fun! I had to look back to get them right, so I got to watch some of Volume 1 all over again and let me tell you, I miss those days. Wish RT would remaster them, but they'd probably screw it up. **

**This is my first foray into RWBY fan-work, so post your criticisms in the reviews and all that. I should upload every weekend or so to keep myself busy.**

**Three of their semblances have been revealed, but only one has been explained and only two have been called out. Can you tell what the mystery two actually are?**

**Hope you guys enjoy Team WVRN! **

**-XaosDiscordial**


End file.
